quote:
Originally posted by ferrellj:
No one on here is going to believe that. I'm not blaming Obama any more than Bush should have been blamed for Katrina. It's politics as usual. You have people in place that have no idea what they are doing, but they were great party supporters. BP and the feds were irresponsible for not having a worst case scenario plan.
Believe whatever suits you.
The oil and gas industry has always claimed to have the resources to clean up any spills that might be occasioned by their activities but, as in the case of the Exxon Valdez, those resources have not always been there (although in many cases, to be fair, they have). In the Valdez matter, BP was supposed to always have a barge ready to receive oil pumped up from spills. The barge was frozen in and inaccessible during the Valdez incident. The Valdez was supposed to always be using a specific, high-tech type radar when navigating within inshore waters. It was turned off when the Valdez ran aground. It had not been used for weeks, since it was deemed too expensive to use.
The oft-quoted Reaganesque notion that "Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem" is not a very neat fit for either the Exxon Valdez case or for the current disaster. When industry gains permission to drill, and when that permission includes responsibilities to comply with stated conditions for prevention and clean-up of spills, and when those measures are neglected, then the industry has failed. And yes, it is the responsibility of government to enforce those conditions, and government bears part of the blame when it fails to do so. But the folly of the cited Reagan philosopy is seen in that it does not take sufficient account of the heavy responsibility that industry bears when managing and accessing puyblic resources within the public domain, as in the case of offshore drilling, mining on public lands, etc.
The Minerals Management Service, which "regulates" offshore oil and gas activities, has a history of egregious corruption (e.g. literally getting into bed with industry) that might not yet have been fully remedied. Maybe this latest mess will trigger much-needed reforms. The recently proposed reorganization is a step in the right direction.